But still I"m jist as able to be sorry for Mr. Wilks for not arriving in time, all the same, if he"s missed anything by it?which I hope he hasn"t."
"Well, he don"t miss any property by it, because he"ll get that all right; but he"s missed seeing his brother Peter die?which he mayn"t mind, n.o.body can tell as to that?but his brother would a give anything in this world to see _him_ before he died; never talked about nothing else all these three weeks; hadn"t seen him since they was boys together?and hadn"t ever seen his brother William at all?that"s the deef and dumb one?William ain"t more than thirty or thirty-five. Peter and George were the only ones that come out here; George was the married brother; him and his wife both died last year. Harvey and William"s the only ones that"s left now; and, as I was saying, they haven"t got here in time."
"Did anybody send "em word?"
"Oh, yes; a month or two ago, when Peter was first took; because Peter said then that he sorter felt like he warn"t going to get well this time. You see, he was pretty old, and George"s g"yirls was too young to be much company for him, except Mary Jane, the red-headed one; and so he was kinder lonesome after George and his wife died, and didn"t seem to care much to live. He most desperately wanted to see Harvey?and William, too, for that matter?because he was one of them kind that can"t bear to make a will. He left a letter behind for Harvey, and said he"d told in it where his money was hid, and how he wanted the rest of the property divided up so George"s g"yirls would be all right?for George didn"t leave nothing. And that letter was all they could get him to put a pen to."
"Why do you reckon Harvey don"t come? Wher" does he live?"
"Oh, he lives in England?Sheffield?preaches there?hasn"t ever been in this country. He hasn"t had any too much time?and besides he mightn"t a got the letter at all, you know."
"Too bad, too bad he couldn"t a lived to see his brothers, poor soul.
You going to Orleans, you say?"
"Yes, but that ain"t only a part of it. I"m going in a ship, next Wednesday, for Ryo Janeero, where my uncle lives."
"It"s a pretty long journey. But it"ll be lovely; wisht I was a-going.
Is Mary Jane the oldest? How old is the others?"
"Mary Jane"s nineteen, Susan"s fifteen, and Joanna"s about fourteen?that"s the one that gives herself to good works and has a hare-lip."
"Poor things! to be left alone in the cold world so."
"Well, they could be worse off. Old Peter had friends, and they ain"t going to let them come to no harm. There"s Hobson, the Babtis"
preacher; and Deacon Lot Hovey, and Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell, the lawyer; and Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the widow Bartley, and?well, there"s a lot of them; but these are the ones that Peter was thickest with, and used to write about sometimes, when he wrote home; so Harvey "ll know where to look for friends when he gets here."
Well, the old man went on asking questions till he just fairly emptied that young fellow. Blamed if he didn"t inquire about everybody and everything in that blessed town, and all about the Wilkses; and about Peter"s business?which was a tanner; and about George"s?which was a carpenter; and about Harvey"s?which was a dissentering minister; and so on, and so on. Then he says:
"What did you want to walk all the way up to the steamboat for?"
"Because she"s a big Orleans boat, and I was afeard she mightn"t stop there. When they"re deep they won"t stop for a hail. A Cincinnati boat will, but this is a St. Louis one."
"Was Peter Wilks well off?"
"Oh, yes, pretty well off. He had houses and land, and it"s reckoned he left three or four thousand in cash hid up som"ers."
"When did you say he died?"
"I didn"t say, but it was last night."
"Funeral to-morrow, likely?"
"Yes, "bout the middle of the day."
"Well, it"s all terrible sad; but we"ve all got to go, one time or another. So what we want to do is to be prepared; then we"re all right."
"Yes, sir, it"s the best way. Ma used to always say that."
When we struck the boat she was about done loading, and pretty soon she got off. The king never said nothing about going aboard, so I lost my ride, after all. When the boat was gone the king made me paddle up another mile to a lonesome place, and then he got ash.o.r.e and says:
"Now hustle back, right off, and fetch the duke up here, and the new carpet-bags. And if he"s gone over to t"other side, go over there and git him. And tell him to git himself up regardless. Shove along, now."
I see what _he_ was up to; but I never said nothing, of course. When I got back with the duke we hid the canoe, and then they set down on a log, and the king told him everything, just like the young fellow had said it?every last word of it. And all the time he was a-doing it he tried to talk like an Englishman; and he done it pretty well, too, for a slouch. I can"t imitate him, and so I ain"t a-going to try to; but he really done it pretty good. Then he says:
"How are you on the deef and dumb, Bilgewater?"
The duke said, leave him alone for that; said he had played a deef and dumb person on the histronic boards. So then they waited for a steamboat.
About the middle of the afternoon a couple of little boats come along, but they didn"t come from high enough up the river; but at last there was a big one, and they hailed her. She sent out her yawl, and we went aboard, and she was from Cincinnati; and when they found we only wanted to go four or five mile they was booming mad, and gave us a cussing, and said they wouldn"t land us. But the king was ca"m. He says:
"If gentlemen kin afford to pay a dollar a mile apiece to be took on and put off in a yawl, a steamboat kin afford to carry "em, can"t it?"
So they softened down and said it was all right; and when we got to the village they yawled us ash.o.r.e. About two dozen men flocked down when they see the yawl a-coming, and when the king says:
"Kin any of you gentlemen tell me wher" Mr. Peter Wilks lives?" they give a glance at one another, and nodded their heads, as much as to say, "What d" I tell you?" Then one of them says, kind of soft and gentle:
"I"m sorry sir, but the best we can do is to tell you where he _did_ live yesterday evening."
Sudden as winking the ornery old cretur went an to smash, and fell up against the man, and put his chin on his shoulder, and cried down his back, and says:
"Alas, alas, our poor brother?gone, and we never got to see him; oh, it"s too, too hard!"
Then he turns around, blubbering, and makes a lot of idiotic signs to the duke on his hands, and blamed if he didn"t drop a carpet-bag and bust out a-crying. If they warn"t the beatenest lot, them two frauds, that ever I struck.
Well, the men gathered around and sympathized with them, and said all sorts of kind things to them, and carried their carpet-bags up the hill for them, and let them lean on them and cry, and told the king all about his brother"s last moments, and the king he told it all over again on his hands to the duke, and both of them took on about that dead tanner like they"d lost the twelve disciples. Well, if ever I struck anything like it, I"m a n.i.g.g.e.r. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE news was all over town in two minutes, and you could see the people tearing down on the run from every which way, some of them putting on their coats as they come. Pretty soon we was in the middle of a crowd, and the noise of the tramping was like a soldier march. The windows and dooryards was full; and every minute somebody would say, over a fence:
"Is it _them_?"
And somebody trotting along with the gang would answer back and say:
"You bet it is."
When we got to the house the street in front of it was packed, and the three girls was standing in the door. Mary Jane _was_ red-headed, but that don"t make no difference, she was most awful beautiful, and her face and her eyes was all lit up like glory, she was so glad her uncles was come. The king he spread his arms, and Mary Jane she jumped for them, and the hare-lip jumped for the duke, and there they had it!
Everybody most, leastways women, cried for joy to see them meet again at last and have such good times.
Then the king he hunched the duke private?I see him do it?and then he looked around and see the coffin, over in the corner on two chairs; so then him and the duke, with a hand across each other"s shoulder, and t"other hand to their eyes, walked slow and solemn over there, everybody dropping back to give them room, and all the talk and noise stopping, people saying "Sh!" and all the men taking their hats off and drooping their heads, so you could a heard a pin fall. And when they got there they bent over and looked in the coffin, and took one sight, and then they bust out a-crying so you could a heard them to Orleans, most; and then they put their arms around each other"s necks, and hung their chins over each other"s shoulders; and then for three minutes, or maybe four, I never see two men leak the way they done. And, mind you, everybody was doing the same; and the place was that damp I never see anything like it. Then one of them got on one side of the coffin, and t"other on t"other side, and they kneeled down and rested their foreheads on the coffin, and let on to pray all to themselves. Well, when it come to that it worked the crowd like you never see anything like it, and everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud?the poor girls, too; and every woman, nearly, went up to the girls, without saying a word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead, and then put their hand on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give the next woman a show. I never see anything so disgusting.
Well, by and by the king he gets up and comes forward a little, and works himself up and s...o...b..rs out a speech, all full of tears and flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother to lose the diseased, and to miss seeing diseased alive after the long journey of four thousand mile, but it"s a trial that"s sweetened and sanctified to us by this dear sympathy and these holy tears, and so he thanks them out of his heart and out of his brother"s heart, because out of their mouths they can"t, words being too weak and cold, and all that kind of rot and slush, till it was just sickening; and then he blubbers out a pious goody-goody Amen, and turns himself loose and goes to crying fit to bust.
And the minute the words were out of his mouth somebody over in the crowd struck up the doxolojer, and everybody joined in with all their might, and it just warmed you up and made you feel as good as church letting out. Music is a good thing; and after all that soul-b.u.t.ter and hogwash I never see it freshen up things so, and sound so honest and bully.
Then the king begins to work his jaw again, and says how him and his nieces would be glad if a few of the main princ.i.p.al friends of the family would take supper here with them this evening, and help set up with the ashes of the diseased; and says if his poor brother laying yonder could speak he knows who he would name, for they was names that was very dear to him, and mentioned often in his letters; and so he will name the same, to wit, as follows, vizz.:?Rev. Mr. Hobson, and Deacon Lot Hovey, and Mr. Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell, and Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the widow Bartley.